The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit with more than 12,000 doctor members, is petitioning the FDA to require cheese manufacturers to display a breast cancer warning on all dairy cheese products.
The petition was submitted on October 3, as Breast Cancer Awareness Month gets underway. In the appeal, the Physicians Committee requested that the Commissioner require manufacturers to include the following notice on the product packaging and labeling of all dairy cheese products:
“Dairy cheese contains reproductive hormones that may increase breast cancer mortality risk.”1
As part of the statement of grounds, the petition said:
“To ensure that Americans understand the potential significant risks, and resulting long-term costs, of consuming dairy cheese products, the FDA should ensure that the notice above is prominently placed on product packaging and labeling for all dairy cheese products.”1
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The Life After Cancer Epidemiology study found that women previously diagnosed with breast cancer who consumed one or more servings of high-fat dairy products each day (such as cheese, ice cream, and whole milk) had a 49 percent higher breast cancer mortality, compared with those consuming less than one-half serving daily.
Dairy products carry traces of estrogens from cows. As milk is converted to cheese, the estrogens are more concentrated. Even though they are only small amounts, they appear to be biologically active in humans, increasing breast cancer mortality.
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Physicians Committee president Neal Barnard, MD, author of The Cheese Trap and Your Body in Balance, says:
“Instead of cheese manufacturers like Kraft slapping a pink ribbon on products like Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Macaroni & Cheese, as they have done during previous Breast Cancer Awareness Months, they should be adding warning labels. We want women to be aware that dairy cheese could put them at risk of dying from breast cancer.”1
The petition quotes several studies linking the consumption of cheese and other high-fat dairy products to a heightened risk of breast cancer. In fact, the video above, from 2013, discusses how high-fat dairy worsens breast cancer survival.
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The National Cancer Institute conducted a study in 2017 that analyzed the diets of women diagnosed with breast cancer to those without breast cancer. The study found that women who consumed the most cheddar, American, and cream cheeses had a 53 percent increased risk for breast cancer. The authors noted that elements in dairy, such as insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and other growth hormones, might be some of the reasons for the increased risk for cancer.
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The CDC states that breast cancer is among the most common causes of death in women. The most recent year for available incidence data is 2016, which indicates 41,487 women died from breast cancer, and 245,299 new cases of female breast cancer were reported in the United States.
Wow! This is fascinating. I am curious to know what you think.
